i went out and bought myself a ds-1 today, i like it but i feel like it's a little to bitey sounding for my taste. not sure if i'll take it back for the overdrive or just keep it for later. how does the mxr distortion plus differ from the boss overdrive?

Just my opinion... but the first phase of distortion (particularly if you're not playing stadiums) is to get that speaker distortion Jerry got from hammering his JBL's with cleans. We all like the tone, but few of us get to push them. A Klon, or a klone (clone of a klon) or an earth drive are pretty good when used as a clean boost to get a similar tone.

I think there are so many great flavors of overdrive/distortion pedals out there now that you can do better than most of what Jerry used. Of course you can go get a vintage... or make a clone, but it seems like the circuitry and opamps have come a long ways in the last 10-15 years - many smoother and quieter. Pick your color, your control, and the level of compression.

Also - the tube screamer and it's derivative have a distinct mid hump. That's never really worked for me with a clean fender preamp and JBL's... just my two cents ymmv.

The HM-2 with it's distortion high and low flavoring is what attracted jer. That baby with the distortion on 1 and the high flav on 7 and low flav 2-3. Nails the distortion tone to the tee. eg,miracle,samson,buckett,deal finale,etc. I've been told from several sources that pedal ,and several others remained on call and pre in jer's 90 rack. Only the pedals that needed on the fly tweaking were mounted facing forwards and few more were bolted down and preset inside but part of the chain(can't really call a chain when the pedals were called apon with jer's trubypass bars). I have an OD-1 modded and it pushes more of a clean over drive but nothing I have ever heard is a screaming distortion yet combined clean sparkle jer tone I get from the hm-2. I've been playing for over 40 years and have all the mxr's,ibanez's,maestro's,sd-1,od-1,ds-1,etc. Perfect pedal setup #1trubypass all pedals,always on and set to obel output with tpc-1,trubypass bar with DPTT with led on each to see which pedals are selected. Let waldo's awesome buffer be heard how sweet it is and dont send it through a run of muffling,tone sucking pedals. Seriously grab an HM-2 and see if it suits your setup with above settings. Theyre around for like 40 bucks.

Smolder wrote:Just my opinion... but the first phase of distortion (particularly if you're not playing stadiums) is to get that speaker distortion Jerry got from hammering his JBL's with cleans. We all like the tone, but few of us get to push them. A Klon, or a klone (clone of a klon) or an earth drive are pretty good when used as a clean boost to get a similar tone.

I think there are so many great flavors of overdrive/distortion pedals out there now that you can do better than most of what Jerry used. Of course you can go get a vintage... or make a clone, but it seems like the circuitry and opamps have come a long ways in the last 10-15 years - many smoother and quieter. Pick your color, your control, and the level of compression.

Also - the tube screamer and it's derivative have a distinct mid hump. That's never really worked for me with a clean fender preamp and JBL's... just my two cents ymmv.

You can hammer the jbl's to the bone. E's can get up to around 400watts and K's open up at about 75watts and can pushed well past 150watts. They were also pushed by 2300 MC's. I have literally stood in front of fourE120 JBL's at 1ohm with a 2300 and the volume around 7 with my guitar. They won't even come close to distorting or sustained feedback. I mean literally I could almost feel the wind coming from a 4by12 stack and held my pups right up to the aluminum dome ,guitar volume maxed. Nope Jer always had something to create a distortion. Them JBL's are the bees knees. Why cant people open them up. Use just one speaker then and make it a K.

boater1941 wrote:I've been told from several sources that pedal ,and several others remained on call and pre in jer's 90 rack. Only the pedals that needed on the fly tweaking were mounted facing forwards and few more were bolted down and preset inside but part of the chain

First I've heard of this?! Can anyone confirm?

Interesting distortion info boater.

"Do not write so that you can be understood, write so that you cannot be misunderstood." -Epictetus

boater1941 wrote:I've been told from several sources that pedal ,and several others remained on call and pre in jer's 90 rack. Only the pedals that needed on the fly tweaking were mounted facing forwards and few more were bolted down and preset inside but part of the chain

First I've heard of this?! Can anyone confirm?

Interesting distortion info boater.

I'm sure this would be a simple enough question for either DH or Big Steve to confirm or dispel. Kidd is all over facebook lately; he might know.

boater1941 wrote:The HM-2 with it's distortion high and low flavoring is what attracted jer. That baby with the distortion on 1 and the high flav on 7 and low flav 2-3. Nails the distortion tone to the tee. eg,miracle,samson,buckett,deal finale,etc. I've been told from several sources that pedal ,and several others remained on call and pre in jer's 90 rack. Only the pedals that needed on the fly tweaking were mounted facing forwards and few more were bolted down and preset inside but part of the chain(can't really call a chain when the pedals were called apon with jer's trubypass bars). I have an OD-1 modded and it pushes more of a clean over drive but nothing I have ever heard is a screaming distortion yet combined clean sparkle jer tone I get from the hm-2. I've been playing for over 40 years and have all the mxr's,ibanez's,maestro's,sd-1,od-1,ds-1,etc. Perfect pedal setup #1trubypass all pedals,always on and set to obel output with tpc-1,trubypass bar with DPTT with led on each to see which pedals are selected. Let waldo's awesome buffer be heard how sweet it is and dont send it through a run of muffling,tone sucking pedals. Seriously grab an HM-2 and see if it suits your setup with above settings. Theyre around for like 40 bucks.